The Instructions by Adam Levin. Youth in revolt, messianic myths, adventure 1030 pages. (I know, right?)
Well, the hardest part of this review is already done, which is the part where i'm supposed to list a few categories the book I read fits into in italics. Even though I got a few down, I don't think anything truly applies because Adam Levin's "The Instructions" is truly in a league of its own.
This massive piece of literature, which looks like a cinderblock is the fictional "scripture" of Gurion Ben-Judah Maccabee, 10 year old gifted scholar, revolutionary, and possible potential messiah. Gurion is a brilliant Jewish youth who has been expelled from three schools, diagnosed with every behavioral disorder in the book and placed in the CAGE program of his newest school Aptakisic Junior High, a BD program where the students are literally condemned to silently sit in a cage all day while ruled by their abusive dictator of a monitor Botha (Botha is a true villain complete with a claw-hand and a creepy Australian accent). Gurion's life completely changes when, after a chance meeting in the office, he falls in love with Eliza June Watermark, the girl of his dreams. While this "first love" may not seem like much to us normal people, for Gurion, this event sets off a chain reaction that leads to a series of misadventures during the next four days leading up to a full-scale revolt complete with armed takeovers, murder, betrayal, and maybe even a miracle.
One of the most exciting things about the world Levin creates for us is the mythology surrounding Gurion. Although most of the story is told as if being recorded by Gurion at some unnamed point in time after the events of the book, there are other included documents that really flesh out Gurion and the characters around him including psychiatric reports, e-mails, and essays written by Gurion in detention. This really gives the reader the feeling that they are not just reading a story, but experiencing it.
By far Levin's greatest strength is his ability to create quirky and interesting characters. Obviously, Gurion is the most detailed, and manages to be a protagonist with both likable and unpleasant traits who you still can't help but love. A few of my other favorites are Gurion's best friends: short-tempered sociopath Benji Nakamook, blunt, foul-mouthed Vincie Portite, and enigmatic mute Leevon Ray. Although these characters along with June, Gurion's love interest, round out the main characters, Levin's supporting cast of minor characters still feel extremely real too (such as perfectly named basketball star Bam Slokum and obnoxious pop sensation Boystar, who I picture looking a lot like Justin Bieber). These characters and more populate Levin's scriptural epic and make you want to soldier through the thousand page epic to learn as much as you can about them.
The few criticisms I have for this otherwise stellar book are very specific to my own tastes. I am not Jewish and am therefore unfamiliar with a lot of the more in-depth Torah and Talmudic references that Gurion, as ten year old religious scholar makes. This doesn't necessarily take away from the story, it just makes small portions of the book where Gurion discusses religion in depth either with his teachers, his parents, or himself, a little harder to swallow. My only other issue lies with the format Levin chooses to put his included e-mails in. The e-mails featured in "The Instructions" are all long multi-input replies and forwards, yet Levin chooses to start all of his e-mails with the final reply and work backwards. This can be frustrating because you have to read the whole e-mail conversation in reverse, so I suggest skipping ahead to where the e-mail section ends in the book, and reading the e-mails backwards (if i'm not explaining this well, just read 100 or so pages in, you'll understand).
All in all, this has been one of the most rewarding things I've read this year. Despite its length, Levin's excellent novel takes you on a thrillride that will have you laughing, crying, thinking, and maybe even praying by the time it's over. Definitely a must-read that I would recommend to anyone.
Showing posts with label comic violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comic violence. Show all posts
Friday, February 25, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour/ Bryan Lee O'Malley
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley. graphic literature, comic violence, relationships, adventure? 248 pages
Well...I can chalk "finish a graphic novel series" off of my bucket list now, because I just completed Bryan Lee O'Malley's final Scott Pilgrim adventure- Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour. I'm gonna go right ahead and say that even though this is a review of the final book, it's hard for me not to reflect on the series as a whole...and honestly, my opinion differs between the two.
Let's start with the plot. After the extremely depressing events of the 5th book, we find Scott freeloading off of his parents and living a sedentary lifestyle filled with video games and snacks. I kind of wanted O'Malley to go all 80's action film and have Scott training silently in a Buddhist temple on a mountain somewhere until he gets called in for one last battle, but that's just me. Needless to say, it is up to Scott's brilliant supporting cast (who have, as a whole been absolutely hilarious for the whole series) to get him out of his funk and back in the mental state to take down evil ex #7, the big kahuna himself, Gideon Graves (you can tell that O'Malley draws a lot of his inspiration for Graves from Jason Schwarzmann's portrayal of him in the movie). Without revealing too much else, this book does feature a lot of full page action sequences that look great and provide for interesting battles, but stray a little bit from the awesome narrative style and dialogue that made the last few books so great.
It's hard to explain my beef with the ending without revealing anything important, but let me just say that my biggest problem with the ending was that a lot of stuff was happening too fast and without proper buildup. You didn't have time to catch your breath and actually experience what was going on because by the time you wrapped your mind around some aspect of the epic-scale final battle, something new and completely different was already going on. I understand that it is always hard to end a series and leave every fan happy, because different fans want to see how different things fold out, but I found that the emotional ending that O'Malley seemed flat to me and I would have liked a little more going on after the final battle.
All opinions of the final book aside, I have definitely enjoyed reading Scott Pilgrim. It seems strange that less than two weeks ago, I hadn't even picked one of these books up. O'Malley really does draw you in to a world that seems both familiar and totally out-of-this-world at the same time. I have learned not to judge a book by its cover (or genre as the case may be) and I think that Scott Pilgrim was an excellent gateway into the world of graphic literature. A whole new broad range of adventures have become open to me and I plan on enjoying each and everyone of them in time.
Well...I can chalk "finish a graphic novel series" off of my bucket list now, because I just completed Bryan Lee O'Malley's final Scott Pilgrim adventure- Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour. I'm gonna go right ahead and say that even though this is a review of the final book, it's hard for me not to reflect on the series as a whole...and honestly, my opinion differs between the two.
Let's start with the plot. After the extremely depressing events of the 5th book, we find Scott freeloading off of his parents and living a sedentary lifestyle filled with video games and snacks. I kind of wanted O'Malley to go all 80's action film and have Scott training silently in a Buddhist temple on a mountain somewhere until he gets called in for one last battle, but that's just me. Needless to say, it is up to Scott's brilliant supporting cast (who have, as a whole been absolutely hilarious for the whole series) to get him out of his funk and back in the mental state to take down evil ex #7, the big kahuna himself, Gideon Graves (you can tell that O'Malley draws a lot of his inspiration for Graves from Jason Schwarzmann's portrayal of him in the movie). Without revealing too much else, this book does feature a lot of full page action sequences that look great and provide for interesting battles, but stray a little bit from the awesome narrative style and dialogue that made the last few books so great.
It's hard to explain my beef with the ending without revealing anything important, but let me just say that my biggest problem with the ending was that a lot of stuff was happening too fast and without proper buildup. You didn't have time to catch your breath and actually experience what was going on because by the time you wrapped your mind around some aspect of the epic-scale final battle, something new and completely different was already going on. I understand that it is always hard to end a series and leave every fan happy, because different fans want to see how different things fold out, but I found that the emotional ending that O'Malley seemed flat to me and I would have liked a little more going on after the final battle.
All opinions of the final book aside, I have definitely enjoyed reading Scott Pilgrim. It seems strange that less than two weeks ago, I hadn't even picked one of these books up. O'Malley really does draw you in to a world that seems both familiar and totally out-of-this-world at the same time. I have learned not to judge a book by its cover (or genre as the case may be) and I think that Scott Pilgrim was an excellent gateway into the world of graphic literature. A whole new broad range of adventures have become open to me and I plan on enjoying each and everyone of them in time.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe/Bryan Lee O'Malley
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe by Bryan Lee O'Malley. graphic literature, comic violence, relationships, music. 184 pages
After watching last night's Super Bowl festivities and witnessing the Lombardi Trophy return to its original home in Green Bay, I thought that nothing could possibly bring me down. Unfortunately, I had yet to read the 5th volume of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series. To call the story a downer would be a real understatement. I am sort of at an advantage to all of the Scott Pilgrim faithful who read the books when they were first released, because unlike they were when Vol. 5 was first released, I know that there is a 6th and final Scott Pilgrim book where everything turns out alright. Unfortunately, this reassurance doesn't soften the blow very much.
After the events of Vol. 4 when Scott gets it together, Vol. 5 does a complete 180 and the reader is treated to watching the life to which Scott (and the readers) have become accustomed to COMPLETELY FALL APART. In a quick 184 pages, Scott manages to not only lose his home, his girlfriend, his band, and his dignity, but also his will to keep going. The optimistic Scott Pilgrim of the past four volumes is replaced with a hollow shell of a character that is driven only by his obsession over why his girlfriend has left him even after he has taken down 6 of Ramona's evil exes (if you've been keeping count but haven't read the books, Scott's adversaries this time are the tag-team duo of evil exes 5 and 6, twins Kyle and Ken Katyanagi and their limitless arsenal of robots). I understand that in order for Scott to truly complete his epic journey, he has to fall and then get back up again, but this fall was painful to watch. I hate to say this (because it makes me sound like a crazy person) but I feel really bad for him after reading this. This isn't meant as a criticism of O'Malley's story. On the contrary, in fact, I would like to compliment him for creating a character for which I can have true sympathy (something I don't even have for REAL people sometimes). My only regret in reading this story is that I didn't have the 6th volume ready and waiting so I could recover from this universe-sized buzzkill.
After watching last night's Super Bowl festivities and witnessing the Lombardi Trophy return to its original home in Green Bay, I thought that nothing could possibly bring me down. Unfortunately, I had yet to read the 5th volume of Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series. To call the story a downer would be a real understatement. I am sort of at an advantage to all of the Scott Pilgrim faithful who read the books when they were first released, because unlike they were when Vol. 5 was first released, I know that there is a 6th and final Scott Pilgrim book where everything turns out alright. Unfortunately, this reassurance doesn't soften the blow very much.
After the events of Vol. 4 when Scott gets it together, Vol. 5 does a complete 180 and the reader is treated to watching the life to which Scott (and the readers) have become accustomed to COMPLETELY FALL APART. In a quick 184 pages, Scott manages to not only lose his home, his girlfriend, his band, and his dignity, but also his will to keep going. The optimistic Scott Pilgrim of the past four volumes is replaced with a hollow shell of a character that is driven only by his obsession over why his girlfriend has left him even after he has taken down 6 of Ramona's evil exes (if you've been keeping count but haven't read the books, Scott's adversaries this time are the tag-team duo of evil exes 5 and 6, twins Kyle and Ken Katyanagi and their limitless arsenal of robots). I understand that in order for Scott to truly complete his epic journey, he has to fall and then get back up again, but this fall was painful to watch. I hate to say this (because it makes me sound like a crazy person) but I feel really bad for him after reading this. This isn't meant as a criticism of O'Malley's story. On the contrary, in fact, I would like to compliment him for creating a character for which I can have true sympathy (something I don't even have for REAL people sometimes). My only regret in reading this story is that I didn't have the 6th volume ready and waiting so I could recover from this universe-sized buzzkill.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together/Bryan Lee O'Malley
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 4: Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Graphic Literature, Fast-Paced Action, Video Game/Comic References, Relationships. 216 Pages
Wow!!! I can't believe it's taken me four graphic novels to realize that the biggest difference between graphic novels and traditional novels are that when reading graphic novels, you can crank out a whole series in a weekend if you really want to. Already, I have tackled Bryan Lee O'Malley's 4th Scott Pilgrim installment- Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together.
If you're reading this, chances are you have read at least one of my previous Scott Pilgrim posts where I profess my undying love for the artwork and narrative style, so excuse me for skipping over it and saying that O'Malley's work remains consistent in Volume 4. Obviously by this point he learns that if it's not broken, there is no need to fix anything. I should also mention that the plot of the story is now much more of a surprise for me, because the 4th book is where the movie plot and the graphic novel plot really diverge. I mentioned in my review the last volume that a few things in the graphic novel were left out of the movie, but volume 4 takes it to a whole new level, because with the exception of the main villain (Ramona's evil ex-...girlfriend half-ninja Roxanne Richter) the storyline was entirely independent from the film adaptation. Obviously the books are going to have a more detailed story because if the movie was going to follow the books frame-for-frame, it would be a 6 hour movie (which I wouldn't be totally opposed to, but i'm kind of a nut like that...) but I looked it up online and it turns out that the screenplay for the movie was being written while O'Malley was putting the finishing touches on the 4th book, so obviously this is where the changes will be most prominent.
One other thing I want to touch upon is the realization that I had about halfway through this volume. I noticed when reading the first volume that each Scott Pilgrim book has a recommended age logo that states they are for Teens: Ages 13+. While I will agree that the first three volumes fit that age group perfectly, this 4th installment had me wondering. Is a 13 year old (and let's be real here, younger kids than 13 are reading/have read Scott Pilgrim. I personally have checked these books out to kids as young as 10-11) really going to be able to understand the humor of Ramona's 4th evil ex being a remnant from her lesbian phase in college? Furthermore, the characters spend an awful lot of time in bars drinking and make references to how fun it is to be drunk. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not in any position to judge people's decisions on what is morally right and/or age-appropriate (after all, I am the guy who pranced around the staff area of the library showing off the "How Animals Have Sex" book I found on the donation shelf yesterday) but I just think that some of the content may be a little mature for middle schoolers. I'm not saying the content should be changed---just the advisory label on the back. If a kid wants to read something, they're going to get to read it regardless of what warnings we put on the book, this however, doesn't mean that the publisher shouldn't at least TRY. That being said, I also realize how ridiculous it is for a parent to tell a kid "you can read the first three books in this series but then you have to grow up a little more before you can keep reading". Needless to say, I'm torn.
I should however mention that Scott Pilgrim really does "Get it Together" in this volume and along with all the humor there are some seriously good messages about growing up, being in an adult relationship, getting a job, and taking care of one's own living situation. I'm not saying that readers are going to go out and get a job just because Scott Pilgrim did, but if a parent is going to be really upset about the content, they should know that there are good lessons about growing up as well.
Well, this post certainly has made me feel holier-than-thou and pretentious. Maybe I've grown up a little bit while reading, but more likely than not I just felt like ranting about something. No worries...on to the 5th book!!!
PS...if I post about the 5th book today/tonight then I need to stop reading and go out and do something
Wow!!! I can't believe it's taken me four graphic novels to realize that the biggest difference between graphic novels and traditional novels are that when reading graphic novels, you can crank out a whole series in a weekend if you really want to. Already, I have tackled Bryan Lee O'Malley's 4th Scott Pilgrim installment- Scott Pilgrim Gets it Together.
If you're reading this, chances are you have read at least one of my previous Scott Pilgrim posts where I profess my undying love for the artwork and narrative style, so excuse me for skipping over it and saying that O'Malley's work remains consistent in Volume 4. Obviously by this point he learns that if it's not broken, there is no need to fix anything. I should also mention that the plot of the story is now much more of a surprise for me, because the 4th book is where the movie plot and the graphic novel plot really diverge. I mentioned in my review the last volume that a few things in the graphic novel were left out of the movie, but volume 4 takes it to a whole new level, because with the exception of the main villain (Ramona's evil ex-...girlfriend half-ninja Roxanne Richter) the storyline was entirely independent from the film adaptation. Obviously the books are going to have a more detailed story because if the movie was going to follow the books frame-for-frame, it would be a 6 hour movie (which I wouldn't be totally opposed to, but i'm kind of a nut like that...) but I looked it up online and it turns out that the screenplay for the movie was being written while O'Malley was putting the finishing touches on the 4th book, so obviously this is where the changes will be most prominent.
One other thing I want to touch upon is the realization that I had about halfway through this volume. I noticed when reading the first volume that each Scott Pilgrim book has a recommended age logo that states they are for Teens: Ages 13+. While I will agree that the first three volumes fit that age group perfectly, this 4th installment had me wondering. Is a 13 year old (and let's be real here, younger kids than 13 are reading/have read Scott Pilgrim. I personally have checked these books out to kids as young as 10-11) really going to be able to understand the humor of Ramona's 4th evil ex being a remnant from her lesbian phase in college? Furthermore, the characters spend an awful lot of time in bars drinking and make references to how fun it is to be drunk. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not in any position to judge people's decisions on what is morally right and/or age-appropriate (after all, I am the guy who pranced around the staff area of the library showing off the "How Animals Have Sex" book I found on the donation shelf yesterday) but I just think that some of the content may be a little mature for middle schoolers. I'm not saying the content should be changed---just the advisory label on the back. If a kid wants to read something, they're going to get to read it regardless of what warnings we put on the book, this however, doesn't mean that the publisher shouldn't at least TRY. That being said, I also realize how ridiculous it is for a parent to tell a kid "you can read the first three books in this series but then you have to grow up a little more before you can keep reading". Needless to say, I'm torn.
I should however mention that Scott Pilgrim really does "Get it Together" in this volume and along with all the humor there are some seriously good messages about growing up, being in an adult relationship, getting a job, and taking care of one's own living situation. I'm not saying that readers are going to go out and get a job just because Scott Pilgrim did, but if a parent is going to be really upset about the content, they should know that there are good lessons about growing up as well.
Well, this post certainly has made me feel holier-than-thou and pretentious. Maybe I've grown up a little bit while reading, but more likely than not I just felt like ranting about something. No worries...on to the 5th book!!!
PS...if I post about the 5th book today/tonight then I need to stop reading and go out and do something
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